West looking for pretext to escalate intervention in Syria, Analyst says

Syrian children receive treatment for a chemical attack at a clinic in the village of al-Shifuniyah in the Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of the capital Damascus late on February 25, 2018. (Photo by AFP)

The Russian President Vladimir Putin says the allegations regarding the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government are “fake news.” In an interview with NBC’s Megyn Kelly, Putin stressed that the Syrian government has destroyed all its chemical weapons a long time ago and the recent chemical attacks are carried out by the militants themselves.

The Russian president also added that Moscow supports a full-scale investigation, reiterating that it is a lie that his country is against an objective investigation in Syria.

Talking to Press TV, Brecht Jonkers, a political analyst and journalist, said the Western countries are trying to pin the blame of the use of chemical weapons in Syria on the government in order to escalate their intervention in the country.

“I believe that the deputy prime minister of Syria has a very good point when he says that this is not the first time that the Syrian government and its troops have been accused, without any evidence of course, of using chemical weapons,” Jonkers said.

He added that after the alleged East Ghouta chemical attacks in 2013, which have never been proven that they were committed by the Syrian army, the government decided to comply with total and complete removal of its chemical weapons stockpile to show its good will, but the Western countries accused Syria of using chemical weapons at least two more times again.

“In fact, I must say as an observer living in the West, living in Europe, there is some sort of a disbelief with many analysts and commentators here that people cannot really fathom how western imperialist media still keep repeating the same lies over and over again, because we have heard this before and just like before it is obviously a lie,” the analyst concluded.

Claims of the use of chemicals by the Syrian government against civilians in Eastern Ghouta came last Wednesday when videos surfaced online allegedly showing planes dropping what were claimed to be phosphorus bombs. The videos triggered calls for a probe from Western governments. However, Syria and Russia swiftly denied the allegations.